


Comes and Goes

by noboomoon



Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms, Red vs. Blue
Genre: F/M, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:34:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24352942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noboomoon/pseuds/noboomoon
Summary: Her hands twitch. "Wash, I'm a soldier. Soldiers don't make choices.""At least don't leave."—Six is back. She's changed, maybe.Wash doesn't know what he's feeling.sequel to suppression
Relationships: slight Six/Wash
Kudos: 17





	Comes and Goes

**Author's Note:**

> warnings: ptsd and nightmares

“Why did you come back?”

He chokes on his words, he wants to say more but fumbles, and Six hums, shoulders relaxed compared to his shaking hands. Patient. It unsettles him.

“To apologize,” she says, and her voice is soft-spoken, so unnatural to the Spartan he knows. “For betraying you.”

The memory is so long ago for Wash to remember. What he does know is that Six left, Six left, Six left. But now she is here and he can’t stop shaking and suddenly he remembers.

Six’s sweet smile. Holding Six’s hand.

“That was a long time ago. Six—”

She places a hand on Wash’s shoulder. “Call me Brooke,” she gives a light squeeze. Wash is torn. Brooke. Six. Brooke. Six. Assassin, assassin, assassin. “Brooke Summers. Don’t tell anyone.” Six smiles, a bright smile. Bright Brooke. Butterflies. Butterflies fly around in his upset stomach. _You’re different now._

“Please stay,” he whispers.

Then his body is aching again, an ache all too familiar. He hears shrieking and the sound of gunfire and Six relentlessly slaughters the Insurrectionists like she has done many times before. She is the only one defending him. David cries out. There are still so many. Because who would’ve thought going feet first into hell was a good idea?

“I hate goodbyes. So I’ll see you later.”

_I hate goodbyes._

His dreams are very muddled that night. Six’s face is a blur when he wishes it weren’t. Her pretty face—he always liked her face—twists and morphs into her, and he briefly sees Allison. For a moment, there is roaring madness and drowning grief. For a moment, he’s Epsilon. But Allison isn’t his, only Brooke is, a fantasy he would never dare share.

_I hate goodbyes, David._

Wash screams. He claws at his face, has the urge to tear out his eyeballs but hands are at his wrists and he is awake and Six is on top of him. On his bed. An unwanted feeling of warmth surges through his body.

Six blinks. “You were screaming in your sleep, Agent Washington.” Is she oblivious? Wash’s cheeks turn a faint pink. “Agent Six, please move.” Liar.

“I have to leave tomorrow.” Just like that, she breaks him again unintentionally, and he falls back into the abyss of emptiness. But he can still see her, hear her, talk to her. He looks at her lips. Six scrambles off of Wash, instead laying adjacent to him. Their hands touch, and it takes all of Wash’s energy to destroy those warm feelings. He is losing the fight.

“You can stay here,” he says. She winces, says no, and the pleas and desperate cries settle in. “I want you to stay here. Don’t you realize you can make choices?”

Moonlight streams in through the Chorus base, hitting Six’s face at an angle. Her hands twitch. “Wash, I’m a soldier. Soldiers don’t make choices.”

“At least don’t leave.”

They talk throughout the night but not always—their only company are the Chorus that chirp occasionally. Wash’s eyes are drowsy but still awake; Six stirs.

“What am I to you?” she asks. The silence lasts for a couple of minutes but for Wash it feels like eternity. His train of thought is cloudy, confused. Too many memories flood his head at once. They meet eyes, blue on gray. He would be lying if he said her eyes didn’t look—

Six turns her head away. “I’m sorry. I’ll be quiet now.”

_What am I to you?_

A stinging pain unlike no other makes a home inside him; he feels it as he and Six both stare at the awaiting Sabre several feet away. He knows it is selfish of him to want to keep her all to himself. And he didn’t feel any regrets at all. _If she goes back to ONI, who will be able to watch her?_

The wind blows, a cool breeze that brushes the purple wildflowers of the meadow they are standing in. Six looks up at the cloudy sky and over to Wash and says,

“I’m never really going to leave you, you know.”

Wash chokes, holding back tears, “Brooke, you don’t have to. Stay with . . .” Hesitation. _Stay with me._

“David.” She grabs his hand. “I’m not saying goodbye.”

Red ripples swarm Six and Wash squeezes her hand. He reminds himself that this is reality and that Six isn’t lying. The red ripples disappear; Wash breathes steadily. She is only leaving just for a little while.

“Are you coming back?”

Six smiles, bright like the sun. Maybe her last name does hold some truth: maybe she is not as cold and stoic as to how Spartans are portrayed. Perhaps she is truly the summer, warm and caring and human and bright only to be hidden away by _them._

“I’ll always return.”


End file.
